About Me

Shuffleplay is a pop culture blog with a focus on music, music reviews and music commentary. I use it as a way to encourage me to dig deeper into the music I listen to and better understand why I like or don’t like something, and in turn, put those thoughts and realizations into words. These posts are opinions and are purely my own but are not posted lightly or without much thought and consideration.

My name is Michael and I am a 30-something from Canada’s east coast. I’ve been a music fan and avid CD collector for over 20 years. (More recently I hopped on the vinyl train but have yet to fully grab onto the digital age, as convenient as it would be and the money I’d save. My belief is that music is an experience that goes beyond simply listening. The act of going to a music store (or in many cases, the mailbox) to holding the album liner notes to pressing play on the stereo are part of the experience. As tempted as I have been to register a music streaming account, I have a fear that doing so would cheapen the experience and devalue the music I want to keep high on a pedestal – even if doing so keeps me in the stone ages. But I digress.)

I’ve earned two university degrees (a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Public Relations from Mount Saint Vincent University) and a college certificate (Recording Arts from Nova Scotia Community College). I enjoy writing and have attempted other art forms over the years including drawing, photography, songwriting, music mixing, filming, and design – with varying results.

Other fun facts:

I was First Running Up for Best Barista as decided by voters of The Coast’s annual Best of Halifax awards in 2010 (and I’ll hold onto that for as long as I can!).

An image I made several years ago went viral with thousands of likes and hundreds of shares (plus a CBC mention). It was this map of Halifax recreated in the spirit of Super Mario Bros. 3 – the best video game ever created! T-shirts and other merch now available!

I’ve been writing for this page (originally The Max Online) since 2009.

If you have any inquiries, suggestions, ideas or pitches, you can reach me by email or social media. Thanks for visiting!